Adventures in Cancerland and Switzerland

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When spider webs unite.

Remember my valiantstory about undertaking my incredibly long and difficult marathon last year? Yeah, I know it has been pointed out to me that a “marathon” is officially 42.195kms therefore I should not have called mine a marathon at all. By that same token Terry Fox should not have called his the Marathon of Hope, since his was way way WAY too long to qualify as a marathon. So there, if Terry Fox can cheat on semantics, so can I.

Well, I finished my marathing (Ha! New word!) in record time (ok it took me two hours and I was aching for 5 days after) and raised over 3000 francs for childhood cancer research. Not bad eh? I felt pretty proud of myself.

Right after the marathing, we were all served hot pumpkin soup (which tasted like a small miracle to me after my 11km hike through the frozen wilderness) and I chatted with some of the other participants. One of them was Zoé’s aunt, Patricia. Zoé is a little girl Elliot and I have met along the way, who has battled neuroblastoma three times.

That’s the funny thing about my adventures in Cancerland – just when I start to feel like my situation is special in some way, someone else comes along to show me I aint seen nothin yet… The year we spent battling cancer alongside our 4 year old was the hardest, most painful, most frightening thing I have ever experienced. Zoé and her family did it… THREE TIMES.

The 11 km trek through the frozen rain was physically exhausting and emotionally challenging – I felt like quitting at least once. (Oh who am I kidding, I felt like quitting within the first 15 minutes when a cheerful bearded man who looked to be about age 70 passed me, and then roughly every 10 minutes after that, as I kept trying to catch up to him and failing.)

Well, Zoé’s aunt Patricia was participating that day for another reason… For practice. Yep, this little 11km was nothing but a trial run! She and two friends, Sophie and Sarah, had signed up for an incredible adventure in support of childhood cancer research, one that made my little 11km seem like a stroll in the park.

The Amazon Green Tree Raid is a 7 day competition in Mauritius, for women only, requiring intense physical and mental stamina to complete difficult events in exotic natural settings, using only, as their website claims “no motors, just sweat”. Zoé’s aunt and her two friends had no special training when they signed up, just the will to be part of an incredible adventure that also might lead to some funds being raised that they could give to childhood cancer research. They named their team: Sun à ma Zoé.

In order to get ready for this event, Sophie, Patricia and Sarah spent the year training for all the different daily challenges they would encounter: they entered 10 races of various lengths, and types, including a biathlon and a bike race. They also had to learn and become very good at mountain biking, canoeing, archery, rock climbing, weight lifting, and orienteering races, some of which they had never tried before. They dealt with bruises and black eyes, injured arms and sprained ankles. They persisted, and the money started flowing in. Sponsors got interested in supporting the team. People signed up to follow their adventures on their website and theirfacebook page.

A few weeks after our marathing, they flew off to Mauritius. We all watched from a distance, tuning into theirwebsite to let us know how they were doing. In a way, they carried not only our hopes for a cure, but also our dreams of adventure. The videothat sums up the event is an amazing compilation.

I like the Ethiopian saying “When spider webs unite, they can tie up a lion”. In this case, the lion is cancer. OK yeah, I guess that makes us all spiders, which is kind of creepy, but my point is, all of us working together can actually make a true difference. Childhood cancer research is still hugely underfunded. Families confronted with a child’s cancer diagnosis have major problems to overcome, not just the cancer and treatment: unpaid time off work or job loss, childcare and help for the other kids, juggling all the everyday concerns while also rushing back and forth to the hospital, many times in an emergency. The 80% cure rate we hear about sounds great until it’s your kid and you realize that what that means is that out of every 5 kids diagnosed, one doesn’t make it. For those who survive, 2/3 will face permanent and serious side effects of treatment. There’s so much more we the little spiders need to do.

On January 18th 2013 the Sun à ma Zoé team presented a cheque to Zoé and Elliot’s oncologist, Dr. Beck, who is also the president of the foundation FORCE, dedicated to childhood cancer research projects. The team had hoped to raise 10,000chf, but were unsure whether the support and public interest would be there. The total amount raised? 23,225chf! An incredible achievement by three women who dared to take on a challenge.

What new adventure is waiting for us just around the corner? Will Zoé’s mom and I decide to climb Mount Everest to raise money and awareness? (She is rolling on the floor laughing after reading that.The odds of seeing the two of us anywhere near such a huge challenge are about the same odds of a scintigraphy machine showing a false-positive… Hey, wait a minute…)

3 thoughts on “When spider webs unite.”

Well Nicole, what can I say ? You will always make me laught ! We will probably not climb the Everst mountain, but I thinks that we will make much more to help in child cancer research, to improve the car for children fighting cancer in the hospital, and many other things that are mentionnend on the famous list “things to do” …
You are a very good coach,and as I say, even if Zoé is figjhting cancer since her birth, many good things happend, and we met some great people ! You are one of these rare person thate makes mes laught, really, and that is able to calm me down, each time we have bad news (that finally aren’t) or when i’m in a panic thinking for a relapse!
Many Thanks for being here for me !
And sorry for my English….
Natalie